this illustrious Member of the Society of Friends-Mark Newbie-doing with Saint Patrick's halfpence in his possession, and were broad-brimmed hats and gray coats compatible with the figures of an ex-mitred saint and a cathedral, even if the representations were on copper?"

"It may be briefly said that the coppers were probably the only coins occurring in New Jersey, as there is little or no evidence that Newbie brought silver with him."

Who was Mark Newbie?

Resident in London, following his tallow-chandler's trade during the profligacy of the Restoration, he had imbibed deeply the mysticism of the Society of Friends, and, it seems, looked towards the New World as a haven for the oppressed of his sect. With this end in view he sold his property and removed to Ireland, where, on the 19th September, 1681, he embarked in a narrow-sterned pink called "Ye Owner's Adventure.” After a voyage of two months he arrived within "ye Capes of ye de La Ware," and after spending the winter near Salem, finally took up a twentieth share of land upon the southern side of what is now the city of Camden.

This humble home was the house of worship for the few Friends in the vicinity, and one of the earliest temples of religious freedom in West New Jersey.

Mark Newbie profited by his adventure. In June, 1682, he was a Member of the Free Assembly of the Province, a Member of Council, and a Commissioner for dividing and regulating land. In October (or 7th month, O.S.), 1683, he appears to have died, probably suddenly. (Extracted from a Paper by Mr. Francis B. Lee, of Trenton, N.J., published in the Proceedings for 1893, of the "American Numismatic and Archæological Society of New York.")

Having thus briefly given their American history, the question for solution is the original source of this coinage and the most probable explanation of the mystery surrounding its mintage.

Can they claim to be Kilkenny tokens? Some are found there from time to time, but they might as well be termed Dublin coins, for there, quite as often as in Kilkenny, they are obtained from excavations made in the older parts of the city and from dilapidated houses on their removal. They are not to be found in other Irish towns, and are unknown amongst English local collections, so they may be practically considered restricted to Kilkenny and Dublin previous to their appearance in New Jersey in sufficient abundance to supply a colonial currency. I have already shown they are not the copper coins struck by the confederates at Kilkenny. The following is an abstract of the order issued for the special coinage made there :

"We doe likewise publish and declare that there shall be 40007. of red copper coyned to farthings and pence with the harp and crown on one side and to (sic) septers on the other, and that everie pound of copper

be made to the value of 2o. 8°., and that this coine shall be currant before as well payment (sic). No person or persons shall be compelled to take but 1. in each pound, and so ratable in everie severall payment other than that. All payments not exceeding 6. may be made and shalbe accepted in the said copper coyne." Date of Proclamation 15 Nov., 1642.

The coins made current under this proclamation are well known, they are coarse imitations of the small copper farthings of Charles I., which they were intended to replace in circulation.

During the reign of Charles, and the period of the Civil War, no mint capable of striking the Floreat Rex coinage was to be found in Dublin, Kilkenny, or elsewhere in Ireland, and so far as we know, no die sinkers either, capable of engraving the dies, though repeated representations were forwarded to the government to obtain leave for erecting such a mint in Dublin by the Irish Council of State, but without success. The suggestion that they were coined abroad in Holland, France, or Italy, is most improbable; they are altogether unlike any foreign coins of the time, and if so obtained some specimens might be looked for on the Continent or at least some record of their fabrication. Whatever money Spain contributed to the Confederates of Kilkenny was silver, principally for the purchase of arms.

The Floreat Rex coins are English in their type, of good workmanship, struck with care, and agree in the minutest details of fabrication with the better classes of coins and medals struck at the Royal mints in the reign of Charles I. This fact led me to institute a closer examination of the dies employed for striking them when compared with the principal coinages of that king, the result being that I find the lettering impressed on the "Floreat Rex" coins corresponds closely with those which Briot, the Royal engraver to the mint, used for some of his own distinctive coinages both in general shape and size, and in the style and outline of the letters, although his "private mint mark," the diamond-shaped stop, or punctuation, placed between words is not present on the Floreat Rex coins. I believe satisfactory reasons can be given for this omission, which will be considered subsequently. As the art of making coins and medals is not generally understood, it would perhaps be well to give a brief description of the process. A model of the intended design is prepared in modelling wax, larger than the future die, to serve as a pattern; (from this an engraving in intaglio is made in a polished piece of softened steel of the exact size of the impression required; from this when properly hardened, if a large number of medals or coins are required, a Hubb" is obtained, by forcibly striking a piece of softened steel into the intaglio engraving until an accurate copy in relief is secured of the original die (which die is not used for coinage, but preserved for making future "Hubbs" if necessary). This "Hubb" when hardened in turn becomes the instrument employed to make the working dies, by impressions taken from it in suitable polished

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masses of softened steel. Of course before being employed at a mint, those working dies require in turn to undergo a careful hardening process, on which their value depends; subsequently they are used until worn out or cracked by repeated strikings, when a fresh die is indispensable, made with the "Hubb" as already described. The lettering placed on a coin is produced by employing separate "Hubbs" made with hardened steel, for each separate letter in the inscription. A mint is supplied with "Hubbs" for alphabets of varying size, but as might be expected the style and general appearance of the lettering employed by a medallist will be found almost as distinctive as the printing types issued by any special manufacturing type-founder, much as the handwriting of different individuals is known to be recognisable. Hence a critical examination of the lettering used in a doubtful coinage affords useful information about its possible source. I find that in Briot's silver coins of Charles I. known as the "Briot Coinages," some of his pattern pieces and of his special Scottish coins agree in a striking manner with the style of lettering employed in these "Floreat Rex" pieces, and further the "Harps" in these Briot coinages and the Floreat Rex coins are represented of similar form, to which I will make further reference.

Again, Briot introduced the process of striking coins within a "collar" into the English Mint when he was appointed chief engraver on his arrival from France, where he would not be permitted to carry out this useful discovery. All the "Floreat Rex" coins are struck in a "collar" and grained on the edges after Briot's fashion.

The Irish harp is represented under different shapes on the coins of James I. and Charles I., sometimes terminating above with the head of a bird or in a fancy scroll. In all the special pieces which Briot made, so far as I know, it assumes the graceful form of a woman's head and bust, and since the reign of Charles II., this female figure has continued to appear on all our coinages. Such also is the shape of the Harp found represented on the "Floreat Rex" pieces.

I would adduce a further reason for believing that Briot designed these coins, namely, the comparatively flat style in which the figures are executed. This flat manner of engraving was his usual method of working and to a certain extent serves to distinguish his style of die-sinking from that of other engravers of the period.

I ought to state that David Ramadge, described in State Papers as "Briot's Servant," has the credit of making the "tools" for Briot. He is called an "Irish Blacksmith," and appears to have executed the mechanical portion of Briot's work; therefore, in attributing this coinage to Briot, it is possible that this "Blacksmith," Ramadge, took part in its execution. Blondeau asserts that he made Briot's "Brasse Counters." "Floreat Rex" coins might be fairly described as such. The statement was put forward by Blondeau in his petition to obtain the office of engraver to the mint on Briot's death to disparage Ramadge.

These

ST. PATRICK' OR 'FLOREAT REX

The numerous varieties of the dies (shown by the varying inscriptions) of the "Floreat" coinage, their general execution and perfect mintage, and the great abundance prepared, sufficient to serve all the purposes of a colonial currency, remove it altogether from any possibility of its being the production of a local or private mintage. Hence I was led to seek for some reasonable solution in the latter part of Charles I.'s reign to account for a large and secret coinage, not subsequently employed, and of which a few examples made their way to Dublin and Kilkenny. I consider they were struck by permission of Charles, and intended to be used by the Earl of Glamorgan, if successful in his attempts to raise large bodies of troops in Ireland and employ them against the Parliament; if so Briot and Ramadge must have struck them when the mint was at Oxford. Unfortunately there are no records of the mint at this period or of the Proceedings of the Oxford Parliament. They were destroyed in 1646 by the King's Privy Council, to prevent their falling into the possession of Cromwell on the surrender of that city.

Charles could make no possible use of copper coins in England. At his lowest estate silver was indispensable, being the only recognised circulating medium, for gold had almost ceased to be procurable. But a copper coinage would be available for currency in Ireland, and for the pay of Irish soldiery. (Even much later, in the Jacobite wars of James II., an Irish soldier received little more than 1d. a-day). Glamorgan was sent by Charles at the time Chester was besieged, possessed of almost unlimited powers, to endeavour to obtain from the Catholic Confederates at Kilkenny no less than 10,000 soldiers and convey them to England. The complete failure of his negotiations prevented the circulation of the coinage, and it remained in England, unknown and concealed, until Mark Newbie obtained possession of these pieces.

Glamorgan's father, the Earl of Worcester, was so wealthy that he is credited with having given beyond £250,000 towards the aid of Charles in the Civil War, and from his Welsh mines Glamorgan could procure the necessary metallic copper for striking this coinage, large though it was, which it is probable no other person could obtain at that time. If successful in enlisting Irish troops, it was essential to have at hand means for their support. On Glamorgan's failure, and the final success of Parliament and Cromwell, he would have been a rash person that dared to circulate a "Floreat Rex" coin, much less one with a mitred prelate and his double cross, so long as the English Commonwealth lasted. When Charles II. returned he did not employ for many years a standard large-sized copper coin in England, although he struck halfpence for Ireland, and when merchants and traders tried in England to introduce a supply of small private tokens for local change he issued special proclamations against their doing so, and effectually suppressed their attempts. We cannot believe he would have failed to notice and promptly check a large issue such as the "Floreat " coins, so unlike traders' tokens, and

so closely resembling royal coins, if circulated at any period of his reign.

Glamorgan, in his efforts to negotiate for raising troops, was, according to his own statement, granted, by Charles, powers much beyond those of a Viceroy. He could grant titles of nobility, employ the public revenues, raise and command English, Irish, and foreign troops, act as Admiral of the Fleet, conduct treaties, appoint his own officers, and even "coin money " in his own mint, and had the promise of a Royal bride for his son. In a word, he obtained from Charles all those powers that a monarch in full possession of undisputed autocratic sway might have demanded for himself. It is true that Glamorgan takes credit for not having struck and issued a coinage for himself under this ample permission, though it is difficult to understand where he could have minted it except at the presses of the king's mint in Oxford. Certainly he could not have accomplished it in Ireland. To quote his own words taken from an Original Letter to Lord Clarendon preserved in the Bodleian Library :

:

"One thinge I beseech your Lordship to observe, that though I had power by it to erect a mynte anywhere, and to dispose of his Majesty's revenues and Delinquents Estates, yet never did either to the Vallue of a farthinge notwithstandinge my own necessityes acknowledgeing that the intention of those powers given me was to make use of them when the armies should be a-foote, which designe being broaken by my committment in Ireland, I made noe use of those powers." (Quoted in Gilbert's "History of the Confederation," vol. v., p. 15.)

On reading this interesting letter with care, we may gather from it that, though Glamorgan did not erect a special mint of his own, the "Floreat" coinage may have been struck under the directions of Charles himself, or at least with his permission, and thus funds prepared in anticipation of Glamorgan's succeeding in raising troops from the Irish Confederates and carrying them successfully across the Channel. This attempt collapsed when the Nuncio and his party demanded such terms that, once disclosed, led to his subsequent arrest by Ormond, in the Castle of Dublin, when Charles was obliged to disavow his agency, repudiate the negotiations, and secretly to endeavour to screen him from a public prosecution. The failure of this last desperate attempt to prolong the Civil War rendered the coinage purposeless and worthless to its fabricators.

The inscriptions of "Floreat Rex" and "Quiescat Plebs" are such as might be expected on a coinage prepared for Glamorgan's use. He and his father the Earl of Worcester were zealous adherents of Rome, and the Earl entertained at one time strong expectations that Charles would become reconciled to his church, and produce a counter-reformation in England. As devoted Royalists their fervent wish must be "Floreat Rex," and the expectation of a revival of Papal supremacy appears expressed by the steepled church and the mitred prelate with his double cross blessing the assembled people, and putting to flight the toads and